History
There is evidence of human occupation in the Benfica area from the Palaeolithic, Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods. The earliest known documentary reference to the place dates from 1263; the parish of Santa Maria de Benfica appears in a will from 1337 and, by the late 14th century, is associated with Nossa Senhora do Amparo. The precise date when the medieval parish was created is not known.
With water, trees and fertile ground, Benfica remained rural for centuries and helped supply Lisbon. Farming, milling, construction, small trade and clothes washing formed part of everyday life in a parish historically described as saloia, a period geographical and social term for Lisbon’s rural outskirts. Estrada de Benfica was its main axis, leading north-west from Lisbon towards Sintra via Sete Rios, Vale de Alcântara, Benfica and Venda Nova.
Construction of the Aqueduto das Águas Livres, begun in the first half of the 18th century, drew workers and increased the population. After the 1755 earthquake, Benfica also received people seeking refuge beyond the city centre. In the 18th and 19th centuries, estates and summer houses attracted noble and bourgeois families. Benfica belonged to the municipality of Belém until 1885, then became directly part of the capital’s territory. The railway, Estrada Militar, trams and steady urban development profoundly reshaped the landscape. In 1959, administrative reorganisation separated Benfica from São Domingos de Benfica; from the 1940s to the 1960s, many former estates gave way to the built city seen today.